Big E

I bought a used boat with a single 502 mag. It has one of those Drew Marine Sidewinders on the sterndrive. I don't like it and was thinking of taking it off. Is there any real benefit of these things unless you are going 100 mph? My boat will not even go anywhere close to 65 mph, is there even a need to keep it on? Why did they put it on in the first place? The boat used to have a procharger on it, the 1st owner blew the motor so now it has a new stock 502 mag in it. I would like to take it off, unless there is a real benefit from it. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance, Eric.

RLW

Eric,
I once bought a boat that had one installed. I removed it and sold it to a board member. They are beneficial in the event you lose steering (tiller arm breakage). The drive will not slam itself left or right, depends on prop rotation. It will dampen that effect. It supposedly will lessen the wear on your outdrive's vertical pivot point bushings because of the same dampening effect.

Russ

Team Gary

They are a bandaid for worn out gimbals

Kanookstr

But they are also a preventive wear for Gimbals. Provided you install them when the gimbals are new
I had a 20' boat that liked to chine walk at 65 mph. I didn't want to put a $2500 hydraulic system on a $10,000 boat, so I bought the twin sidewinder. I was very impressed. The chine walk went away compleatly, and I was able to stay at high speeds indefinately because of them.

cigarette1

Unless you are going to replace the stabalizer with hydraulic steering, you would be wise to keep it on. It is better than nothing.

SSComp

If you are thinking of taking it off talk to someone who has lost their steering (and lived to tell about it).

Sidewinder will reduce the wear on your gimbal bell and tiller and allow you to gracefully come to a stop if steering breaks. The normal system bravo/trs/alpha is just not set up for the abuse of a boat going 60+ exiting the water and entering again. God forbid you try steering in the air or enter sideways.

Be safe, not sorry.

Big E

Thanks for the info, I guess I will leave it on.

Team Gary you have me worried now that my gimbals are shot. Who would put that on to fix a worn out gimbal bearing? Why not just replace the bearing.

I replaced the gimbal bearing in an older boat that I had, I heard a thumping noise at idle speed, replaced the gimbal and it corrected it. I was board so I broke open the old gimbal bearing and sure enough a couple of the ball bearings and ring were scored. Thanks again. Eric

Hot Boat

Eric I believe he was referring to the gimbal ring. under extreme conditions it can get worn out and make the steering a bit loose. Changing a gimblring is one pain in the neck job. to do it right you should pull the motor. or you can buy a kit from merc that will allow you to drill two 1" holes on each side of the top of the transom assembly to obtain access to the nut holding the whole thing together in side. doing it this way you wont have to pull the motor but some people don't like the idea of drilling the holes in the drive. to help prevent premature gimbol ring damage it is a good practice to periodically tork down on the two bolts on the top of the gimbol ring to the factory specs.

as for your stabilizer it is a good idea to have one for safety reasons with the speeds that your boat is going.

SSComp

Correction, I mean't to say ginbal ring not gimbal bell above.